An empathetic choice is not always the best choice, while slaying an apparent villain might well close rather than open doors. Think of it as the dialogue-based decision-making of Mass Effect or The Witcher, but expanded enormously, with far more scope to elicit further information before choosing your actions, yet also avoiding obvious binary nice/nasty choices. This is an RPG for attentive players, not those who merely wish to accumulate increasing powers of destruction. I don't mean simply moral decisions here, but also that Torment will drop hints about possible solutions in its dialogue, leaving it up to you to put two and two together about how you might resolve its many quests or dilemmas, and the possible consequences thereof. The game is one of obtaining as much information as you can, and then making decisions with often far-reaching and sometimes tragic consequences based on your analysis of that information. Torment: Tides of Numenera does contain action, and many of its situations can be resolved with violence if you so choose, but to do so would be to cut yourself off from the game it most wants to be. You, as a male or female character dubbed 'The Last Castoff' are born into it in adulthood, with apparent ties to a divisive 'god', and from there you must uncover the secrets of your own past, but more importantly make an ongoing choice about who you wish to now become. To summarise as briefly as possible: this is an RPG set in a world of equal parts magic and technology, and at which the relics and detritus of other worlds and realities have washed up. What is required is a reasonable degree of patience, and an enjoyment of reading and of big ideas.

There are references and commonalities, but they're not in any way necessary to understand or appreciate it.

No, you don't need to have played 1999 weird fantasy roleplaying game Planescape: Torment to enjoy this spiritual sequel.

You do not know the past of Torment, and so chose to hear everything.

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